


baby, it's cold outside

by marcel



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Chinguline, M/M, coat sharing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-10-22 10:40:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10695342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marcel/pseuds/marcel
Summary: Kyungsoo is, generally, cold and annoyed. Chanyeol just wants to help.





	baby, it's cold outside

**Author's Note:**

> 21/4/17: this fic is Real Old but in light of lj being the worst i'm moving it here! also i still rly love this fic so idk why i didnt move it here earlier smh  
> also known by its working title, “kYUNGSOO WEAR MY COAT AND ALSO THESE SIX OTHER COATS”. thanks everyone
> 
> this fic has been translated into [turkish](https://www.wattpad.com/story/98197234?utm_source=android&utm_medium=link&utm_content=story_info&wp_page=story_details_button&wp_uname=IHMSJYDK&wp_originator=%2BAuStuW2%2FW9CMPl6xv7tn8BmkFqz3EV1GuedrIjKUEHhge%2FReVrVviViRAiUrOiCmwxJcG%2F7%2FxWCA5Pf%2Bsn%2Fr1yKGiX520F%2BE11Ad5UAr%2BXg%2FA1g0X3GXEsi%2FbDZCVBU&_branch_match_id=384102767387752092) and [vietnamese](https://floatingovertheclouds.wordpress.com/2017/12/21/transoneshot-baby-its-cold-outside/)!

It starts when Kyungsoo gets a cold.

Well, probably a little before that, but Kyungsoo only notices once he has a cold, and it _really_ starts when Chanyeol knocks on his door and forces him out of his warm bed to answer it.

He’s grinning, as usual, the tips of his nose and ears flushed pink from being outside. The winter weather has really settled in recently - hence, Kyungsoo’s cold, and further, his flat greeting.

“What do you want.”

Undeterred, Chanyeol’s smile grows wider. “Baek and Jongdae put bubble bath in the school fountain and it’s gonna look really cool.” In the couple months that they’ve been friends, Chanyeol has, at the very least, learned that Kyungsoo would always prefer him to cut to the chase. “Wanna come see?”

“No,” Kyungsoo says, and sniffles. “I have a cold, and a midterm.”

Chanyeol’s excited expression immediately drops off his face. “You have a cold?”

“That’s what I said.” He coughs a little, wincing. Chanyeol is the first person he’s spoken to all day, and his throat feels almost rusty from dryness and disuse. “I’m staying inside today. Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Chanyeol says quickly, stepping back from Kyungsoo’s door. He bites his lip, looking torn - probably between something like running away or offering a hug, both very Chanyeol things to do. Kyungsoo can feel a headache coming on.

“I have to get back to studying,” he says, and Chanyeol jumps a little, like he’s been startled out of his thoughts.

“Uh-- yeah, sorry.” He takes another step back, far enough so that Kyungsoo could close his door and not feel like he was being rude mid-conversation. Kyungsoo would appreciate it if it weren’t such a strange thing for Chanyeol, king of the endless conversation and motor mouth extraordinaire, to do. “See you later,” Chanyeol says, and takes off down the hall.

Kyungsoo stares out at his empty doorway for a moment before realizing how dumb he looks and closing the door. Maybe Chanyeol was just in a hurry to get back to the fountain, he supposes, returning to his blanket cocoon and, inside, his psychology textbook.

Not even ten minutes later, there’s another knock on his door, and Kyungsoo excavates himself from his blankets with only minimal shivers and coughing.

It’s Chanyeol again, because of course it is, except this time he’s holding a small container with the dining hall logo printed on it.

“I got you some soup,” he says, grinning once more and pressing the warm container into Kyungsoo’s hands. “Feel better, okay?”

“Sure,” Kyungsoo says, like the decision to feel better is his own and not up to how well his immune system does its job. “Thank you.”

University, he’s learned, is a place where everyone has to be self-sufficient, but as he watches Chanyeol scamper away a second time, he supposes that it’s always nice to have friends that bring you soup.

\--

Kyungsoo doesn’t really think about it again until his cold is mostly gone and he’s heading out to his early Tuesday morning class with Baekhyun. As they head down the hall to the stairs, they pass by Chanyeol’s door, which opens almost as soon as they pass it. Chanyeol jumps out at them, still in his pajamas, and shoves a thick woolen scarf at Kyungsoo.

“It’s cold out,” he says. “You should wear this.”

Kyungsoo stares at it. “I’m already wearing a scarf.”

“That’s a sheet of cotton,” Chanyeol scoffs. “ _This_ is a scarf.”

It takes some bickering, but eventually Kyungsoo does take the scarf from him - only because it’s eight in the morning and Chanyeol’s voice is loud and Kyungsoo doesn’t want to deal with a floorful of angry, sleep-deprived uni students.

He and Baekhyun continue on their way to class, and it _is_ pretty cold outside, so he switches his thin knit scarf for Chanyeol’s wool one. The icy wind is suddenly much easier to face, and Kyungsoo burrows deeper into the scarf without realizing he’s doing it. He straightens up again when Baekhyun gives him a weird look, and blames the warm feeling in his cheeks on the cold weather.

\--

Kyungsoo starts to notice, after that, that Chanyeol constantly tries to lend him scarves, mittens, hats, and various other items to protect him from the cold. It doesn’t seem to matter how many of these things he’s already wearing or how short the amount of time he’ll be outside - as soon as Kyungsoo shows even the smallest sign of discomfort, Chanyeol frowns and holds out something fuzzy and knitted.

As they leave the dining hall one night, Kyungsoo is distracted from Baekhyun and Jongdae’s debate over the quality of cafeteria chicken strips when the outside air hits him. He shivers a little, and Chanyeol immediately takes off his furry ear-flap hat to place it on Kyungsoo’s head instead.

“Chanyeol,” Kyungsoo sighs, reaching up to take it off. “I’m fine. It’s a three-minute walk to the dorm from here.”

“Are you sure?” Chanyeol asks. He takes his hat back but looks ready to force it on Kyungsoo again if he so much as twitches.

Kyungsoo rolls his eyes. “Yes, I’m sure.”

“Better wear it yourself, Yeol,” Baekhyun pipes up, he and Jongdae both snickering as they look back at the other two. “If you get a cold, the whole dorm will have to deal with you sneezing like an elephant for a week.”

Chanyeol frowns, but he keeps the hat in his hands instead of putting it back on.

It happens a lot. As many times as Kyungsoo refuses and hands whatever knit item back, Chanyeol still offers, still asks _are you sure?_ at least twice before he lets it go. It’s sort of nice, Kyungsoo supposes, the way Chanyeol tries to look out for him, but a little annoying at the same time. If he can handle moving away from home to be an undergrad and live alone in his single dorm room, he can definitely handle the cold weather by himself.

\--

It starts getting dark out earlier and earlier, and before long Kyungsoo has to walk back to the dorm from his evening class in the pitch-black. The temperature also drops sooner than it used to, so it’s freezing cold even though it had been almost warm when his class had started that afternoon.

Kyungsoo shivers his way across the quad in a light jacket, hands stuffed in his pockets. Being annoyed at himself for forgetting to bring something warmer doesn’t help his already-stressed mindset, what with this new assignment he has less than a week to complete, on top of all the other work he already has, plus it’s fucking _cold_ \--

“Kyungsoo!”

He nearly jumps at the voice, but when he whirls around it’s just Chanyeol, trotting over to him in his familiar ear-flap hat. His signature wide grin lasts only until he gets close enough to see what Kyungsoo is wearing - or, not wearing.

“Where’s your coat?” he asks, looking around like it might be hidden somewhere.

“Forgot it,” Kyungsoo bites out, trying his best to keep his teeth from chattering. He really just wants Chanyeol to let him keep walking so he can maybe make it back to the dorm before he freezes to death.

Chanyeol frowns at him, though, and hesitates for a moment before he shrugs off his own coat. “Take mine.”

Kyungsoo sighs, impatient. “No, Chanyeol.”

“But--”

“Stop it,” Kyungsoo says sharply, “I don’t need you to look after me, alright? I’m _fine_.”

Chanyeol steps back, startled, and drops his gaze to the ground. He suddenly looks small, despite his height. “Sorry,” he mumbles, sounding embarrassed.

“Put your coat back on,” Kyungsoo tells him, turning to head towards to dorm again. He only gets a couple steps away before he realizes that Chanyeol isn’t following. “Are you coming?”

Chanyeol shakes his head, still not looking up. “I’m… I’ll just be a second.” He glances up but barely meets Kyungsoo’s eyes before he looks right back down. “Y-you can go on ahead.”

Kyungsoo can’t imagine why he’d want to stay outside in the cold when his own hands are starting to feel like ice cubes, but he can’t concentrate when he’s about to have a literal brain freeze, so he leaves Chanyeol there and hurries the rest of the way back to the dorm.

It’s only once he’s upstairs and defrosting in his own room that Kyungsoo happens to look out the window, and sees Chanyeol moving across the quad, head still down, coat still in his hands.

\--

The next day, Kyungsoo, Baekhyun, Jongdae and Chanyeol have a class together in the morning, but Chanyeol claims he has last-minute homework to complete and tells the others to go on without him. Kyungsoo raises his eyebrows, but also doesn’t want to be late to class, so he doesn’t hang around to question him.

Chanyeol doesn’t end up being late either, sliding into the seat Baekhyun saved for him thirty seconds before their professor starts the lecture. Kyungsoo isn’t really one for talking in class but he knows Chanyeol is, and it’s a little weird to see him staying quiet for Baekhyun and Jongdae’s entire whispered argument about the book they were assigned.

Even after class, he opts to go with Baekhyun to find pre-lunch snacks instead of back to the dorm with Kyungsoo and Jongdae. It’s not a big deal, just… strange. Kyungsoo shoves his hands in his pockets and stares at the sidewalk, barely listening as Jongdae goes on about his hot math professor.

Part way there, Kyungsoo shivers, and holds his breath for a moment before he realizes that Chanyeol isn’t around to give him an offer to turn down. That’s what he wanted, he knows, but it doesn’t feel as freeing as he thought it would. More than anything, he just feels cold.

\--

It’s the same for the rest of the week, Chanyeol bowing out of most group plans and leaving Kyungsoo alone for once. When the weekend hits and things still haven’t changed, Kyungsoo begins to suspect that Chanyeol may be avoiding him.

And it must be him, not Baekhyun or Jongdae, because he still talks and laughs with _them_. During the few times they do all walk somewhere together, Chanyeol seems normal, except for keeping his hands to himself and barely looking at Kyungsoo, even when he’s shivering.

Why, though, Kyungsoo wonders, when all he’d done was-- snap at Chanyeol when he was trying to help? Yeah. Nice going.

Kyungsoo sniffs and wraps his blanket more securely around himself. Recently he feels like his cold is coming back, and his shoulders feel tight from how he tenses up in the cold to keep from shivering. He never seems to be dressed warmly enough, no matter how many layers he wears.

Sometimes he gets close to missing Chanyeol’s hovering around and offering him scarves, but then he remembers that he asked for this, to be left alone. He told Chanyeol to stop babying him, and he did. But instead of triumphant, Kyungsoo feels… a little lonely. A lot cold. 

Still, he’s not going to ask for extra coats and scarves, or anything like that. He’s an adult and he can handle some frigid weather, whether Chanyeol is his friend or not.

\--

The weekend goes by with the nights getting steadily colder, and soon enough there’s snow dusting across the whole campus. It looks nice but sucks to walk in, which Kyungsoo finds out the hard way. It doesn’t help that he’s still cold all the time, and the back of his throat has started to feel scratchy again. He takes cold medicine before bed and prays that he wakes up Monday morning feeling better--

But of course, he wakes up to someone banging on his door instead.

“Yo,” Baekhyun calls through the wood, “you awake?”

“I am now,” Kyungsoo grumbles as he sits up. He wonders for a moment why his room looks so bright, and glances out the window to see snow falling. It must have snowed heavily overnight, because everything outside is covered in a thick blanket of white. There’s barely even any footprints in it yet.

“This is important,” Baekhyun yells. He starts knocking again, louder this time, and Kyungsoo rolls out of bed to open the door for him, shivering when his feet hit the floor.

Baekhyun grins as soon as he sees Kyungsoo, already looking prepared to brave the snow in his coat, hat, and gloves. He also looks way too excited for the current time of the morning. Kyungsoo considers just closing the door on him.

“It snowed enough to cancel classes,” Baekhyun explains in a rush, before Kyungsoo can say anything. “AKA, campus-wide snowball fight. You down?”

Kyungsoo coughs a little. “No.”

Baekhyun sighs wistfully. “Fine, you wet blanket. You and Chanyeol both today, jeez.” 

“Chanyeol turned down a snowball fight?” Kyungsoo asks, eyebrows raised in disbelief.

“Yeah, weird, right?” Baekhyun pulls his hat down more securely and flexes his gloves fingers. “Whatever, though. If you guys decide to come out, you’re on our team. See you later,” he calls, and trots down the hall to bang on Jongdae’s door.

Kyungsoo pulls his door shut and stares at it. Maybe Chanyeol has gotten sick too, if he’s unwilling to go play in the snow. He’d have to be _really_ sick, though. For a moment, Kyungsoo worries that he had given his cold to Chanyeol, but then realizes he hasn’t spent enough time around Chanyeol in the past week to have given him any germs.

With a huff, he climbs back into bed.

Their whole floor is quiet for once, which is nice. He and Chanyeol very well might be the only people still inside. It’s also really cold, but that’s more or less what Kyungsoo expects these days. He tries his hardest to warm up, but even under all four of his blankets he’s still too cold. 

Actually, he’s been perpetually freezing pretty much ever since he told Chanyeol off.

It takes him a while, but Kyungsoo eventually admits to himself how bad this sucks. He’s cold, he feels bad, Chanyeol is just down the hall, and if he’s not going to be warm until he apologizes, then he might as well do it.

Besides, Kyungsoo thinks he might miss Chanyeol being super fucking loud all the time. Just a little bit.

He makes himself get out of bed and shuffle all the way down the hall to Chanyeol’s door, even if it feels like his teeth are chattering by the time he reaches it. His knocks sound too loud in the empty hall.

Chanyeol answers in only a few seconds, but his expression droops a little when he sees Kyungsoo, and Kyungsoo immediately feels worse.

“Hi,” he says, quiet.

“Hey,” Chanyeol says back. He sounds tired. “D’you need something?”

“Uh, yeah. My… my room’s really cold.”

Chanyeol blinks at him. Kyungsoo swallows nervously, hoping he can understand even if it’s not said out loud.

_I’m sorry, I miss you, I’m freezing to death--_

“Do you have a- a blanket I could borrow?”

It takes a moment, but Chanyeol’s confused expression melts into a grin. “Yeah, I do,” he says, and steps back to let Kyungsoo inside.

While Chanyeol rummages in his closet for whatever blanket stash he apparently keeps there, Kyungsoo looks around his room. It’s not really as messy as he expected it to be, but there is definitely a short table made out of textbooks and at least one pizza box in the corner.

Chanyeol’s bed is unmade, covered in mismatched overlapping blankets. Kyungsoo stares at it for a few moments, weighing his options. On one hand, Chanyeol is kindly finding him a blanket in a perfect scenario for them to reconcile. On the other, Kyungsoo is too cold to care about consequences, and so he climbs onto the bed and slides underneath the covers.

It’s warm already. Chanyeol must have been lying in bed before Kyungsoo knocked on his door, and left some heat behind.

He sighs a little, settling into the warmth. Chanyeol chooses that moment to find the blanket he was looking for and turn around, and finds Kyungsoo in his bed. There’s a long pause.

“You okay?” Chanyeol asks, sounding genuinely concerned.

“I said it was cold,” Kyungsoo mumbles.

Chanyeol hesitates another moment, then drapes the blanket over the others on top of Kyungsoo. He can barely feel it through all the other layers, but he appreciates the thought.

It starts to feel a little awkward, lying in Chanyeol’s bed with Chanyeol just standing in the middle of the room, staring at him, so Kyungsoo holds his breath and lifts up one corner of the covers, inviting.

Chanyeol breaks into a smile and clambers onto the bed, immediately sliding under the blankets beside Kyungsoo. He feels like a furnace and Kyungsoo rolls a little closer to him almost unconsciously. Chanyeol notices, though, and drapes one arm carefully over Kyungsoo’s waist.

He seems to be waiting for Kyungsoo to pull away, but he’s so warm that Kyungsoo presses closer instead. After a bit of shuffling, they both fit more comfortably on the bed and Kyungsoo, nestled under Chanyeol’s arm, feels like he’s defrosting for the first time in a solid week.

They’re both quiet for a while, but Kyungsoo knows there’s still something hanging over them.

“I’m sorry,” he says softly. “For snapping at you. I was-- stressed, and--”

“You don’t need to apologize,” Chanyeol mumbles.

“Yes I do,” Kyungsoo insists. “You didn’t deserve that. No matter how annoyed I was.”

Chanyeol keeps frowning, looking down at the sheets between them instead of at Kyungsoo. “I didn’t mean to be annoying,” he says quietly. “I just didn’t want you to get sick again.”

“I think I already did,” Kyungsoo says, sniffling.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize, I’m trying to apologize to _you_.”

“Oh. Sorr-- I mean. Okay.” After a pause, Chanyeol meets his eyes again, voice soft. “I can still stop, if you want.”

“No,” Kyungsoo says, too quickly. “I mean, you don’t have to? I-- it’s--” He cuts off, ducking his head a little to hide from Chanyeol’s unwavering gaze. “I’ve been… cold.”

There’s another stretch of silence, and then Chanyeol’s arm tightens around him. “Kyungsoo?”

“What?”

“I need to tell you something.” He sounds nervous, but his hand is steady where it rests against Kyungsoo’s back. “This whole time, I-- it wasn’t just about you getting sick, or me being nice, it was-- I wanted to.”

“Wanted to what?” Kyungsoo asks, not daring to glance up.

“To take care of you,” Chanyeol answers, breathing it out in a rush. “To give you blankets and soup and stuff of mine to wear and keep you warm and, and--”

He cuts off with an flustered sort of choking noise when Kyungsoo looks up at him, and they stare at each other for a moment, both red in the face.

Kyungsoo looks away first. “Um,” he says, intelligently. “Okay.”

“I like you,” Chanyeol blurts. “I’m sorry, I don’t want to make you uncomfortable or anything, I just can’t-- I needed to--” He cuts off, biting his lip and looking terribly embarrassed.

For a few seconds, Kyungsoo just blinks at him. It’s a bit of an emotional overload, and he’s not entirely sure what to do with all of it.

What he _is_ sure of, though, is that he’s warm right now, and he doesn’t want to be cold again. He doesn’t want Chanyeol to avoid him anymore. He doesn’t want Chanyeol to move the arm he has around him but he starts to, and Kyungsoo catches his hand before he can take it back all the way.

“Really?” he asks quietly. He knows Chanyeol isn’t one to say things without meaning them or joke about his feelings, but for this, he needs to be sure.

“Really,” Chanyeol mumbles back, no hesitation. “Sorry if it’s--”

“It’s not,” Kyungsoo says, and tugs Chanyeol’s arm back over his waist to where it was before. When he lets go, Chanyeol keeps it resting there, and after a moment slides his hand down to Kyungsoo’s hip. Even with the heat of the blankets all around him, Kyungsoo can still pick out the warmth of Chanyeol’s palm through his clothes. 

“I _really_ like you,” Chanyeol says, sounding more sure. “Since a long time ago.”

“I only met you in september,” Kyungsoo points out, but Chanyeol just smiles sheepishly.

“Even then, I wanted-- you were... a lot.” He laughs a little, shaking his head. “I used to think about-- having you here, like this.”

Kyungsoo raises his eyebrows. “In your bed?”

“In-- not like _that_ ,” Chanyeol says quickly, flushing red again. “Like-- not even touching, just you lying here, and me being close to you for once. I never thought I had a chance, but it still sucked when you-- when you told me off. I stopped hoping but now you’re here and it’s real and I just, I really, _really_ \--”

Kyungsoo cuts him off with a kiss, leaning across the gap between them to press his lips to Chanyeol’s just long enough to stun him into silence. Chanyeol looks a little shocked when he pulls back, but soon enough a smile blooms across his face and he follows Kyungsoo’s example, leaning in to kiss him sweetly.

Of all the ways for his morning to go, this was not an option Kyungsoo considered at all, but he quickly reaches the conclusion that he’s entirely okay with it. Chanyeol’s mouth on his mouth certainly helps the decision along.

A sudden _thunk_ on the window startles them apart, and they sit up in bed in time to see a second snowball smack against the glass. Chanyeol clambers out from under the blankets to open the window and peer out at whoever is down below.

“Yo,” Jongdae’s voice comes filtering in as he calls up to Chanyeol. “Is Kyungsoo with you?”

“We already tried his window, but he didn’t answer,” Baekhyun pipes up as well.

“Um,” Chanyeol says, glancing behind him at Kyungsoo still in his bed, and Kyungsoo is suddenly very glad that their friends are outside instead of knocking at the door. “Yeah, he’s here.”

“Come outside, both of you,” Baekhyun yells. “The snowball fight’s over, it’s peacetime and we’re bored.”

“Hold on,” Chanyeol calls, then turns back to Kyungsoo, voice dropping to a whisper. “Do you want to? You can just stay here, if you want.”

Kyungsoo considers it, imagining the terrible juxtaposition between the warm blankets around his waist and the freezing conditions outside.

“No, I’ll come out with you,” he decides, and Chanyeol leaps back onto the bed to press a long, happy kiss on his mouth.

Leaving Chanyeol to yell plans down at Baekhyun and Jongdae, Kyungsoo tries his best to walk calmly down the hall back to his room. He half expects to freeze as soon as he enters, but it suddenly doesn’t seem as cold inside as it had when he was trying to sleep. He doesn’t feel so sick anymore, either, which is nice.

Being warm is, generally, nice - but Kyungsoo supposes that being cold again wouldn’t be so bad either, as long as Chanyeol is there to warm him up. He cuts that thought off before it gets too embarrassing, and sets about retrieving his warmest coat and scarf from his closet.

Chanyeol is already waiting for him in the hallway when he comes back out, smiling brightly at him, but he still hesitates for a moment before holding something out to Kyungsoo.

It’s his furry ear-flap hat, the one he had tried to offer to Kyungsoo days and days ago. This time, Kyungsoo smiles back and takes it from him.

It feels a little ridiculous once it’s on his head, but it’s worth it for the way Chanyeol beams all the way down to the first floor. He takes Kyungsoo’s hand just before they push the front door open. His palm is warm against Kyungsoo’s own, and their fingers wind together as they head out into the snow.


End file.
